Ryan International School murder: Bombay High Court grants interim relief to trustees

Bombay High Court today granted relief from arrest to the trusties of St Xavier's Education Trust which operates the Ryan International School.

Additional public prosecutor Aruna Kamat Pai, who represented the government of Maharashtra, pointed out that the Haryana government has not been given a notice so the petition for transit anticipatory bail cannot be granted.

However, Justice AS Gadkari, while presiding over the case said, " This is only a case of transit remand. Let the accused go to the state where the crime took place and seek anticipatory bail there. The state can oppose it there."

However, Pai persisted and told the court that there are apex court judgments to show that the state where a crime has been committed has to be informed about such petitions for such anticipatory bail to be heard.

"This is an interstate case and I will ask for a day's time to be accommodated to show the apex court judgment," she said.

Advocate Gunratan Sadavarte representing Ambedkar Students Association and parents group in Mumbai too intervened and opposed the anticipatory bail petition of the trustees.

He also claimed that Supreme Court has cast aspersions on the trustees and so their petitions should be rejected.

Even as advocate Niteen Pradhan, who is representing the petitioners, objected saying that Supreme Court has passed no such orders, Justice Gadkari objected to the intervention saying that if they wanted to intervene then they should go to Haryana and do it there.

Dr Augustine Francis (73) pinto and Grace Pinto (62) had approached the High Court for an early hearing of their anticipatory bail application.

In the petition filed through Pradhan, they stated that the trust operates about 54 schools all over India, and Ryan International Group of Schools is having experience of over 40 years in the field of imparting education.

A seven-year-old boy Pradyuman Thakur was found dead in the school washroom. The school CCTV footage was seen by the police and a school bus conductor was arrested by Bhondsi Police of Haryana.

The trustees in their petition said that they are residents of Mumbai and the overall management of the trust is being carried out from their Mumbai office, however, the day-to-day management of the school is taken care of by local staff appointed by the school administration.

The trustees thus said, they are approaching the court for a transit protection to enable them to approach the appropriate judicial authority in Haryana.

Ryan Pinto the CEO of the school is in the process of filing his transit anticipatory bail according to Pradhan and his petition will also be heard along with that of his parents on Wednesday.